Z's Comeback
by babyc2407
Summary: Continues where The Delgado Files left off...


This begins where The Power of yellow left off. I'm sorry it took so long to post but I had to take care of school work and etc. It's summer so I have the time to write more (hopefully). Please review once you're finish. I like hearing from the readers.

The familiar blackness...

I had gotten use to it for sometime now. It wasn't where present danger was prowling for me or constant shadows lurked about. It was peaceful which for some reason was the scariest of all things. When I felt relax everything looked wrong and when I was tense, the blackness would fade for a moment into vivid scenes that would astound. It was like expecting a foreign person to learn a language in a rapid minute. Everything that was lost to me was crammed in a slideshow presentation that was over before it began. Then it drew to a point where the blackness wasn't safe anymore. The presence of evil in that darkness revealed themselves. Memories of pain were strong enough to pull me into a deeper darkness, depression so pressing, I feared I would have no energy to resurface the depth that was attempting to drown me, and the fear that eventual built into something so terrifying I woke up.

I shot up wide awake.

I was lying flat on a bed surrounded by equipment with different types of monitors and knobs and buttons. To my near right were two large cylinders that were filled with a colored liquid that bubbled in its containment.

The worst of all were the wires.

I jolted in another stage of panic, ripping at them all. The ones attached to suction cups placed on my forehead, one that was clipped to my finger, a small set of them on my chest, and a cuff attached to one on my arms. The bulky machine nearby started to buzz incessantly. I threw off the covers of the bed and leaped off.

I was dress in a starch white gown that felt as if it was put on backwards because it didn't completely close up in the back. I ran across the cold marble floor on my bare feet looking for a way out. I came across a doorway that I was sure was the way out of this..this…..lab. A section of the wall had keypad. It could be a number of different combinations with that many buttons. I became frustrated.

Panic and confusion boiled up inside of me until I pounded at the door.

I screamed at a shrieking loud pitch that scratched my throat.

My knuckles were crimson from the force of my pounding; the steel peeling the soft skin of my knuckles.

The left side of the room was made of glass, so I noticed people coming down the hall. I stumbled back on to the floor and shivered. They loomed above, dressed in white coats. "Our patient has awoken," one of the them noted.

The woman next to him was writing something down on a clipboard she carried in. The man pulled out a small tube from his pocket and uncapped it to reveal the sharp point at the end. The sight of it made me mad again.

"She needs to be sedated before she hurts herself."

"No! You keep that thing away from me!" I scuttled backwards into the machine. The machine rolled back a little. I used the machine as a support to get up and pushed it towards them. It knocked them both into the hallway. It didn't matter which way I went. The noise from the room echoed into the corridors that I ran.

"_A patient has escaped the medical quarters. Be on the lookout for a patient that has escaped the medical quarters."_

I climbed the stairs in another corridor.

"Z!" Someone called.

I didn't stop. I could hear the sound of their footstep pounding against the floor pursuing after me.

I made a sharp turn around the corner.

"Z, stop!"

A pair of doors opened up beside me.

Elevator.

I got in and pressed at any button to get it going. The doors quickly swish closed, closing on the character that was after me. I caught a glimpse of what he was wearing before the doors closed: A grayish-black uniform with red at the shoulders and stripes that ran down the attire. The doors opened and I took a cautious peek outside. The hallway was clear. "Z?"

I snapped back around to see who spoke. Nothing was behind me, but I swear I heard someone.

"Z, up here."

I looked up at this bluish ball of light floating above my head. A name came to mind. "Sam, is it?"

"It is true," the light responded.

"It is true?" I repeated.

"No, you had it right the first time. I'm Sam."

Then an image of a curly ginger head boy popped up in my memory.

"You use to be a boy."

The light transformed into a human form with a blue, yellow, and white suit that covered from head to toe.

"I'm the future self of the Sam you know."

"You grew into an odd looking human."

"It's too much for me to explain now, but the jest of it is that I can not transform into my human self in your time period."

I didn't know if it was the true or not but my memory of Sam was so overwhelming that I went to hugged him. The elevator doors opened again. I took cover behind Sam. A blue dog with a leather uniform stood in front of the doorway.

A guy from the future. A blue dog. I'm the modern Alice in a twisted wonderland.

"Nice doggie," I said, my voice shaky. The dog frowned.

The guy in the red uniform appeared next to him, catching his breath. I took another look at him.

A memory flashed in my head: Me and him distributing clothes out of a truck to the needy on the streets. Then another with us being in some cell of sort and the blue dog was there too. He talked to Jack and me about being a part of something bigger.

"Jack!" I exclaimed.

I leaped from behind Sam and swallowed Jack in a hug. I felt safer than I ever felt in a long time with these people (even the blue dog) who later I found out had a name, Commander "Doggie" Cruger.

The commander pulled out what Jack called a communicator and the alarm stopped. He then pulled Jack aside to talk to him in private. Sam transformed back into a ball of light and drifted down the hallway. Jack came back over and pressed the button for the elevator. I grew suspicious of their conversation but followed him in.

"What were you two talking about that was so private?"

"Huh?"

Before he could press any of the buttons, I stepped in front of him.

"Z," he said, tiredly.

"Jack," I mocked in that same tired tone.

He laughed. "You haven't changed."

"Was I suppose to?"- Now, talk."

He moved me out of the way and pressed one of the buttons.

"I'm returning you to the medical quarters."

I quickly turned back to the buttons and found the emergency stop button.

"No way, Jack. There's these white coats down there waiting with a weapon in there hand and I don't believe in handing myself over that easily."

"Would you stop-"

"No you stop and listen," I interjected, pointing a serious finger at him. "It's so easy for you to say that considering that you're not in my position. Well, let me tell you something Jack. I can't remember none of this. I just remembered who you were a moment ago. Sorry that it's taking me awhile to be my old self."

This time he was the one to hug me.

"I'm sorry," I cried, hugging him back.

"Shh, its alright," he said, calmly soothing my back. "You don't have to go back. I'll try to find another place you can settle in for tonight and explain the situation to Commander Cruger in the morning."

I pushed away from Jack and wiped the tears from my cheeks with my palms.

"Jack, I would appreciate if you kept this emotional moment between us."

"Yeah, sure." He agreed, changing the elevator's course.

He led me into a dark room and quietly knocked at the door.

"Syd, open up, it's Jack," he whispered.

"Syd," I said to myself. "I know that name from somewhere."

"I'm up-I'm coming—one second," she responded, her voice muffled through the door. The door slid open. The girl standing behind the door was wearing some kind of goopy green facial mask, pink curlers in her blonde hair, and wearing a pink fluffy robe. Jack made a disgusted expression on his face then recovered.

"Z is moving back in her room a little early than planned."

"Okay," she said sleepily.

"And um, see if you can find something else for her to put on."

"Okay," Syd yawned.

I walked in and scoped out the room.

"Oh, and Syd, you got something on your face."

Syd closed the door on Jack and came over to me.

"The yellow side is where you sleep," she pointed. The yellow she was referring to was the sheets on the bed. The walls were covered with lots of pictures.

A brown teddy bear, a boom-box, a digital camera, a portable cd player, a stack of cds, and an assortment of pictures in a variety of different frames were on the shelves above the bed. Syd went over to the wall of the yellow side and pressed a button. The wall slid back revealing a closet of clothes. "Everything in here is yours." She moved aside so I could look inside. Syd yawned and went back to her bed. I took out a yellow shirt with a white short sleeve shirt underneath and some flannel grey pants.

"Is this okay to wear in bed?" I asked.

She didn't respond.

"Syd?"

Nothing again. I turned around to see why. She had fallen asleep again. I slipped into my pjs and pulled down the cover. I climbed up onto the bed on my knees and looked at the pictures displayed in the frames. There was one with me and the girl named Syd and another with Jack slouching on a red couch. One of the pictures had two guys in it that I couldn't put a name yet on but they seem to be familiar. I had to be really close with them because I was in other pictures with them. I let out a long, exhausting yawn and settled down on the bed. My eyelids became heavy as I rested my head on the pillow. I was soon fast asleep.

The beeping of an alarm clock woke me up from a peaceful, dreamless sleep. I sat up and stretched. Outside the window, the sun was peeping, casting a warm light inside the room. My stomach began to growl.

"Syd, does this place serve breakfast?" I asked, sitting up on the bed.

Syd, was taking out curlers in her hair.

"Its food," she said, sleepily.

I got up and opened my closet. I searched through it. I had two of the same uniforms that I saw Jack wear earlier but it had a yellow pattern.

" I guess we wear uniforms on a daily basis," I said, holding out the uniform.

"Pretty much. The only time we are allowed to wear anything else is on our time or when we are undercover." "And what are "we" exactly?" I asked, emphasizing _we_ with air quotations.

"It's too much to explain now but me and the guys will get you up to speed on everything."

She walked across and hugged me. "It will be as though this ugly ordeal never happened."

We dressed in our uniforms and headed for the dining area. During the walk, Syd filled me in on S.P.D. Turns out I could morph into the ranger suit Sam had transformed into. Since we were power rangers, our uniforms were different from other cadets.

"What would you like? Syd asked, walking in the dining area. " Something cold or hot or a little or a lot.?"

"Some cereal and a glass of orange juice." Syd keyed in something on the touch pad screen on the wall and the request came up in the space beside it. Syd keyed in her order and a plate of pancakes topped with strawberries and blueberries and maple syrup and a glass of orange juice appeared. She picked up her tray and started looking around for a place to sit.

"Come on." She gestured with her head to follow her. She was headed for the table where Jack and the two others guys were sitting; the same two from the pictures on the shelves.

They stopped their conversation and fell silent when we came over.

"Don't stop your conversation on our account," said Syd.

Syd set her tray by Jack and sat down. I took the available seat between the two. Me and the guy in blue both looked at each other and looked away. My face felt strangely warm. I turned to my right.

"So, I take it you are Bridge?" He held our his hand.

"Bridge Carson, B-squad." I shook his hand.

"Z- I think."

He continued his introductions by going around the table.

"By now, you should know Sydney, and that's Jack and sitting next to you is Sky. Jack is the leader of B-squad being that he is S.P.D's red ranger. Sky over there is the blue ranger. He was sort of sore about not being the ---

"Bridge, you got something green between your teeth," said Jack, pointing to his teeth. Bridge looked bewildered.

"I don't remember eating anything green," Bridge pondered, looking down at his tray.

"Bridge, I've already filled her in about us," said Syd, cutting into her pancakes.

"Oh."

Don't remember. Those words. I remembered them from somewhere. I chanced a sideways glace at Sky again from the corner of my eyes.

"Maybe Bridge can show you around," Jack suggested.

"Bridge can't." Syd jumped in. "He's got to help Boom repair that thing in the lab." Everyone looked at Syd, including Bridge, who apparently looked surprised by it all. "What- I mean, yeah, I'll be working with Boom all day on that---

"New software for the quantum enhancer," Syd finished.

Bridge nodded in agreement.

"Sky, you know this place from top to bottom and cover to cover in the book," Syd continued.

Sky gave her a narrow look that I found cute.

" I didn't join S.P.D to become a tour guide," he affirmed sternly.

"Thank you for volunteering, Sky," said Jack.

"I didn't volunteer for anything."

"Well, then Sky, I order you to show her around."

Sky fell silent moving around the contents on his tray with a fork.

After breakfast, he did as he was commanded. He carried himself in a tolerant manner as we walled the halls. I found it funny. This robotic dog started following us around, close to my heel. Sky called him RIC. RIC seemed playful for a robot. Sky showed me around the command station, Kat's lab, the training field, the assimilation rooms, and the confinement quarters. He wasn't much of a talker. He kept details brief and to the point. We were coming out of the arsenal lab when an siren went off.

"What's happening?"

Red lights started flashing throughout the hallway.

"Whatever it is, it is looking for a fight," Sky said gallantly. He ran down the hallway. I followed. Commander Cruger contacted Sky and reported that krybots have been detected in a warehouse.

"What are krybots?" I ask, running along with him in the hallway.

" Part of Gruumm's troobian force. "He entered into an elevator that had the letters S.P.D flashing in blue and red lights. I barely made it in there with him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm following you."

"I'm sorry Z but this is where the tour ends."

The doors quickly closed and dropped at an increasingly faster rate than the others. We entered into a garage space where the S.P.D vehicles were kept. Sky put on a blue helmet and a pair of gloves that were placed on a blue motorcycle. Syd, Jack, and Bridge ran out of another elevator.

Sky rode off. Bridge and Jack got on motorcycles that matched the colors they were wearing and Syd climbed into a jeep. They seemed oblivious to the fact that I was even there.

"Z."

I turned around. A woman was standing in front of the doorway to the elevator. She had wavy brunette hair, green eyes, spots that ran down her face, and pointy cat ears. A blue dog, a ball of light that use to be human, and now a cat woman.

"Cat," I thought out loud. I looked at her again.

"Kat. Kat!" I ran over to her and hugged her. It felt good when she hugged me back. She had a motherly quality about her that I remembered I was fawn of. I followed her inside the elevator.

"The rangers had to go off and fight krybots at the Bayworth warehouse," she explained. "Why would they raid a warehouse?"

"Not just any warehouse. Bayworth stores a lot of conductors, particularly solar ones." "And what would Gruumm want with a solar conductor?"

Kat looked at me surprised. "You know about Gruumm?"

" Sky filled me in on S.P.D's number one uno baddie."

"Not just S.P.D, the universe." A thought came to mind about that.

"What if he's not the only negative force that you have detected so far."

Kat didn't seemed to be disclosed by that possibility.

"There are others out there like Gruumm and other S.P.D headquarters like ours that are there to protect and serve."

"What if someone, say a power ranger, needs protection?"

She rested her hand on my shoulder.

"That someone has good friends backing them," she reassured me.

It should have sounded encouraging, but they were only words. I felt as if I heard the same exact words and then went through some nightmarish tragedy.

When she got off the elevator, I didn't follow. She turned around to see if I was behind her and I let the elevator doors close without so much as an attempt to move. I stepped out on the next floor the doors opened on. Passing by me as I stepped out was one of the white coats pushing a gurney. It didn't take me a while to recognize who was on it. "Haley."

The woman pushing the gurney stopped.

"Where are you taking her?"

"The doctor has requested that she be moved to another room."

Haley looked rested from the last time I saw her, which was running in the rain. There was more to it I know, but every time I tried to remember what happen I would get a headache.

"Is it okay if I visit her sometime?"

The woman nodded her head.

"She would love for someone to keep her company."

I watched as the nurse continued down the corridor.

Later that evening, I had settled down to read a book in the lounge when the others came in. Jack collapsed on the couch beside me.

"So what have you been up to all day?" He asked.

"Nothing to tell. I am so bored out of my mind."

"How about a game of lightball?" Syd suggested, eyes twinkling.

"Once you've played a round, you'll probably remember how much you loved playing it," said Bridge.

"You guys look like you're exhausted. You've been out all day. Don't you want to rest?" Jack sprung up from the couch.

"What? Me? I can play you all night."

I got up and stared him dead in the face. "You are so on."

Syd tossed me a glove. I threw my book down on the couch and slipped it on.

_Try not to get hit. _"Give me the ball."

Sky decided to sit the game out. He wanted to catch up on his reading. Jack handed me the glowing ball.

"This is going to be too easy."

That night I was restless. I tossed and turned in the bed feeling tired but I couldn't fall asleep. I got up and left the room. The hallways were quiet. Still, I tiptoed down them, taking the stairs to the medical quarters. I found the room Haley was placed in. I could only look through the glass at her. She turned her head and looked at me. I jerked back from the glass, startled. She pulled off the covers and slipped out of bed. She walked over to the glass windows.

"Haley, I can come in if you open it from the inside."

She nodded slightly and went back to her bed and pressed a button on its keypad. The door opened. I carefully walked in so I didn't frighten her. She climbed back on her bed and sat down looking at me. A moment of awkward silence past before either of us said anything. I was the first one to speak.

"I'm Z. I don't think we had the chance to formally introduce ourselves before" I said. She looked at me with her shy sapphire eyes.

"Its okay, I'm a friend. I won't hurt you."

"I know." She replied in a small, shy tone. "You saved me from that monster."

"You remember what happen?"

She nodded her head. I wanted to know of course, but I didn't want to ask her to bring up something she'd rather not relive.

"You think you can tell me what happen?"

She shuddered. "He was after me when you came and got in the way. It was suppose to take me, but zapped you instead and the storm rejected the both of us."

"He sent a storm?---Who's he."

She covered her ears and screamed. "No."

I went over to her and knelt down next to the bed. "It's okay. Don't be afraid," I said, resting my hand on her leg. " You're safe here."

"He'll come back," she cried. She began to sob harder.

I never should have brought up the thing in the first place. I hugged her and soothed her back. She felt so cold. I was starting to think whether there was any heat in these rooms. "Someone's coming," she whispered eerily in my ear. I turned around. Sky came in the room. I let out a sigh of relief. "

You scared me."

"Z, you know…" he started. "No one is allowed to wander the halls this time of night."

I started to say something smart back to him, but it wasn't worth the effort.

"Sorry, I just wanted to check up on Haley."

"Visiting hours are up. It's time to go back to your room."

"Yes, sir," I saluted.

He frowned lifting a eyebrow at me and crossed his arms over his chest. I turned back to Haley. Her eyes were a cold icy blue. The room started turning unbearable cold that my breath began to fog.

"Something's coming. Get away from the windows," she ordered.

The windows froze over with ice and shattered, jagged shards flying into every which way. Sky dove in front of us and shielded us with his force field. Through all the chaos I caught a peek at the _it_ that she foresaw coming. The black shadow vanished. The alarm went off. I snapped around to Haley, who was still in her chilling trance.

"Haley?" I gave her the slightest touch. She was freezing to the point that my hand numbed in pain from the touch.

"Sky, something's wrong," I panicked. She looked like a statue frozen from a strong blizzard. I tried to touch her again. This time the pain was much worst.

"Don't. We've lost her."

"No! She's just scared. She can break her trace if she wants to. She's just scared!" I grabbed her by both shoulders. The pain traveled through my body.

"Haley, it's me. Your friend, Z. _Please_, _stop_!"

In an instant her frozen form disappeared and she was herself again. My knees gave and I collapsed, Sky catching me from behind. The whole thing left me exhausted.

Haley slumped on the bed. It left Haley sleeping. She had to be moved to another room. The room was closed up for further investigation.

Waking up that morning, the whole night felt like a dream. I got up in the morning and went over to the boys' room and knocked on Bridge and Sky's door. The door opened on Bridge making toast with his computer.

"Morning Z. Want some toast. It's buttery." He said offering it on a plate.

"No thanks. Is Sky around?"

"He's around somewhere in here. Unless ---"

"Thanks, Bridge."

I found him and Jack in the command station keying in data files on the main console. I went over to where Jack was and stared at the monitors.

"I heard about your bizarre encounter last night," he said.

"A monster is a monster. Now I've got to figure out what's its damage."

Jack brought up last night's surveillance. Sky came over to observe. Jack played the footage. The creature behind the door didn't look like any baddie I ever seen. It seemed to just have just materialized in the hallway. That's when the glass windows shattered and it disappears.

" Look at the size of it," I pointed out. "It seems hunched over to maneuver in the hallway."

"Has Commander Cruger contacted her legal guardians to inform them about her whereabouts?" Sky asked.

"Not yet, but he's having one of the C-cadets to search for them. Meanwhile, he's having Kat see about Haley."

"What about Haley? She's a little girl with an incredible gift. Who knows maybe one day she could be serving S.P.D as the next yellow ranger"

"Or be a threat to us, either way," Sky added.

"Sky, why do you always assume that everyone with a special gift shouldn't be trusted. Her powers aren't used as weapons, but _rather_ protection."

I took him by the arm and held it up. "Just like you use your gifts to create force fields as a shield or whatever, is she not allowed or privileged with that same right?"

"That's right, Ms. Delgado."

I dropped Sky's arm. The blue dog had come in the room. We all turned around to face him. Bridge and Syd were behind him.

" So were her parents involved in S.P.D and were effected by a accident in the lab that altered their DNA sequence?" Bridge asked.

"No. She is a foreign from the Dageon islands in Quadrant 12. She wasn't born with these powers. Dr. Kat believes she acquired them not too long ago."

The screen on the console showed a beautiful island with lustrous green covered mountains, thick, tangled trees, and surrounded by a bottomless blue ocean. "

How did she get here?" I asked.—I mean, that planet must be light years away from Earth."

"That is what we need to find out."

The alarm went off. The islands disappeared off the screen. A giant robot was attacking the city.

"Rangers, suit up. Gruumm's latest scheme is attacking downtown New Tech."

Jack pulled out his morpher. "Ready!"

I looked to Commander Cruger for confirmation, who nodded his head.

"Ready!" We replied.

"S.P.D. Emergency!"

To Be Continued…


End file.
